Mozambique: Cabo Delgado in security and humanitarian decline
A mother and her child stand in front of a village near Macomia (Cabo Delgado) which has just suffered an attack on August 24, 2019. MARCO LONGARI / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, calls for “urgent measures” to protect the civilian populations in northern Mozambique.
In her press release published Friday, November 13, the former president of Chile considers the situation "desperate" in the Cabo Delgado region, plagued by an upsurge in attacks by the Shebab jihadists who claim to be part of the Islamic State group.
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Since mid-October,
attacks have intensified in the Cabo Delgado region
.
According to the UN, the victims number in the tens, but no reliable figure is available.
Beheadings are also reported on a regular basis.
Local and international media have claimed that 50 bodies were found headless last weekend in a clearing in Mouidoumb district.
An unverifiable figure again according to Mgr Luiz Fernando Lisboa, the bishop of Pemba, the provincial capital.
“
In recent days there has been a lot of violence and also beheadings, it's a fact, it's true.
How ?
I can't tell you, we don't know, everyone is on the run, we can't count.
But for example I spoke with a young man whose brother and uncle were killed.
"
"Bodies in the bush"
On the other hand, the Bishop of Pemba confirms the influx of displaced people and the lack of means to come to their aid.
More than 14,000 people have arrived since October 16: by land, sometimes after weeks hidden in the bush.
Or by sea, with the risk of damage.
The capsizing of a boat thus killed at least 40 people, according to the UN.
Zenaida Machado, who works on Mozambique for the NGO Human Rights Watch, recalls that beheadings have been common since the start of the jihadist insurgency in 2017 in this region.
She also denounces the lack of humanitarian care for displaced people:
“
When they arrive, there is no state official to help them, to register them.
There is no medical team to see if they are sick or injured, while they are extremely tired, visibly dehydrated.
They were at sea for days without eating or drinking, with only the clothes they had on them because they sold everything else to pay for their place on the boat.
Most of them don't know where their loved ones have been.
On these boats, there are children who do not know where their parents are, people with disabilities.
This is just one example of what we can see, of this humanitarian disaster.
And there is also what you cannot see: before going up without these boats, they spend weeks in the bush, hiding.
They say there are bodies everywhere, in the bush, on farms, until they can embark on safe places.
"
Cabo Delgado (territory in light green in the northeast), is the northernmost region of Mozambique.
It is located at the antipodes of the capital, Maputo.
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